Performance bonuses were paid to Department of Veterans' Affairs doctors who were disciplined for practicing with an expired license, refusing to see emergency room patients, and leaving the operating room during surgery, according to a report issued Friday.
Every medical professional eligible for extra pay got it, regardless of performance or discipline, at the four hospitals studied by the Government Accountability Office.
The VA has no clear policy on what constitutes exceptional performance that should be rewarded by financial incentives, GAO found.
In the 2011 fiscal year, about 80 percent of the 22,500 doctors and dentists who work for the Veterans' Health Administration received performance pay boosts, which are annual awards in addition to their base salary, at a cost of about $150 million.
In addition, about 20 percent of those medical professionals received performance bonus awards that cost more than $10 million.
Not all VA medical professionals are eligible for performance incentives. Performance pay is supposed to be tied to meeting specific goals, while the bonus awards are supposed to be for exceptional work. However, GAO found even doctors with serious breaches of medical standards got the extra money.
For instance, one surgeon who was supervising residents left the medical center during an operation, leaving it to the residents to continue the procedure. They were unsupervised until another surgeon was found to oversee the operation.
The departing doctor was suspended without pay for 14 days, but received $11,189 in performance pay.
Another physician continued to practice medicine for three months at a VA facility on an expired medical license. The doctor was reprimanded when administrators found out, but still took home $7,663 in performance pay.
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